Knitting needle and method of using the same



E. M. VAN BERGEN KNITTING NEEDLE AND METHOD -OF USING THE SAME Filed Dec. 18, 1933 Patented July 317,134

KNITTING NEEDLE AND METHOD OF USING THE SAME lElecta M. Van Bel-gen, Syracuse, N. Y.

Application December 18, 1933, Serial No. 702,881

2 Claims.

raveling when the needle is withdrawn and for restoring the needle to its knitting position in the stitches when desired.

The main object is to provide the needle with means for attachment to an elongated member 0; whereby when the needle is withdrawn from the last row of stitches the elongated member will be drawn through said stitches to retain the same in regular order against unraveling so that when it is desired to restore the needle to its knitting position, it is simply necessary to withdraw said member with the needle attached thereto in a reverse direction to effect such restoration, thus permitting the knitting operation to be continued without appreciable labor or loss of time.

Oneof the specific objects is to provide the needle with an eye for receiving the elongated member which may consist of a string, cord or other flexible member.

Another object is to provide a pair of needles with a flexible connection for making tubular knit fabric and to provideeach needle with an eye or equivalent means for attachment to a cord or additional member whereby either needle may be used to draw said additional member through the stitches of the last row of the fabric as the needle is withdrawn from said stitches and to permit said additional member to be used for restoring the needle to its knitting position in the same row of stitches.

Other objects and uses relating to specific parts of the needle'and to the method of using the same will be brought out in the following description.

In the drawing:

Figure l is a perspective view of a tubular knit fabric and a pair of flexibly connected needles as used in knitting the fabric.

Figure 2 is a face view of a pair of needles and the flexible connection therefor.

Figure 3 is a face view of one of the needles with a row of stitches thereon and a cord or other elongated member threaded through the eye of the needle preparatory to drawing the same through the preformed stitches as the needle is withdrawn.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood, I have shown in Figure 1 a portion of a tubular knit fabric A and a pair of needles 1 mounted upon the opposite ends of a flexible connection 2 shown as forming the last row of stitches -a of the fabric, each needle being provided near its terminal end with an eye or opening 3 for the reception and temporary retention of a cord or other elongated flexible member 4, the latter being shown in Figure 3 as threaded through the eye 3 of the needle 1.

The flexible connection 2 for the needles 1 preferably comprises a central core wire 5 and a flexible casing 6 also of fine wire Wound tightly around and upon the core Wire 5.

The opposite ends of the core wire 5 and corresponding ends. of the casing 6 are brazed or otherwise permanently secured to the heel ends of the adjacent needles 1 so that the casing 6 and core wire 3 become a unitary part of each of the needles which are relatively rigid and may be made of steelor any other suitable material. These needles are used in the usual manner .to form a knitted fabric and are preferably united by the flexible connection 2 when it is desired to form a tubular fabric as shown in Figure 1.

It is evident, however, that in some instances the connection 2 may be omitted and the knitting needles 2 used in the usual manner for knitting plain or flat fabric in which case one or both of the needles may be provided with the eye 3.

During the knitting operation, it sometimes becomes necessary to withdraw the needles from the last row of stitches and unless some means is provided for holding said stitches in regular 85 order against unraveling, t is extremely laborious and difiicult to restore the needles to their knitting positions and in order to save this labor and to overcome the difficulties mentioned, one or each (preferably both) of the needles is provided with the eye a through which the cord or other elongated member 4 may be threaded just preceding the withdrawal of the needle from the last row of stitches.

It therefore follows that when either or both of the needles are withdrawn from the stitches,

the member 4 will be simultaneously drawn through said stitches to hold the latter in regular order against unraveling, it being understood that the distal end of the member 4 will then be left exposed for redrawing the same with the needle attached thereto through the same stitches.

That is, after the needle has been withdrawn, thereby threading the member 4 through the stitches, the latter with the needle attached thereto may be withdrawn from the stitches in a reverse direction with the assurance that the needle will follow through said stitches to restore the same to their knitting positions in the fabric.

Although the invention, consisting .in the formation of the eye 3 in one or both of the needles together with the member 4 threaded through the eye is very simple, yet when said member is drawn through the stitches through the withdrawal of the needles therefrom, it assures the retention of the stitches in regular order so that when it is desired to restore the needles to their knitting positions, it is simply necessary to withdraw the member 4 in a reverse direction, thereby causing the needle to follow through the stitches, all of which greatly expedites the operation of restoring the needles to their knitting position and also greatly reduces the liability of unraveling of the stitches when the needle is withdrawn therefrom.

It is, of course, understood that during the formation of the knitted fabric, the latter will be more or less shurred upon the needles according to the use to which the fabric is to be put. For example, in the knitting of skirts and similar garments, it is necessary to predetermine the girth of the fabric according to the size of the person to which it is to be "applied and it, therefore, becomes necessary to remove the needles from time to time to enable the knitted portion thereof to be spread out in more or less of a fiat plane or fitted to the person while the garment is being made to assure a more perfect fit of the garment when completed.

What I claim is:

, 1. In the art of knitting fabrics with hand needles, the herein described method of retaining the last row of stitches against unraveling when the needle is withdrawn consisting in attaching an elongated flexible member to the knitting point of the needle while the needle is still in the stitches, then withdrawing said needle with the member attached thereto from the stitches to draw the member through said stitches and afterward withdrawing said member with the needle attached thereto until the needle is restored to its knitting position, and finally detaching said member from the needle to allow the continuation of the knitting operation.

2. A knitting needle for forming a tubular garment comprising two relatively stifif knitting end portions, and an intermediate relatively flexible portion connecting said end portions and adapted to extend through the last row of stitches formed with the knitting end portions for continuously supporting said stitches during the knitting operation, at least one of said end portions being provided with an eye and an elongated fiexible stitch retaining member adapted for association with the eye whereby said member and said needle may be alternately utilized to draw each other through the stitches and thereby automatically transfer the stitches from the one to the other. 

